"Old dog, if I come out alive, I will slaughter you!"
At this moment, Chu Feng truly hated Steward Mu Kun to the extreme. Even Luo, the Chief Steward of the Sword King Mansion, didn’t incite as much hatred as this man.
"Haha, with you, a waste who doesn’t even have sword meridians, still thinking of slaughtering me?"
Steward Mu Kun seemed to have heard the funniest joke ever, and people like Ma Miao laughed along, looking at Chu Feng with eyes as if gazing at an idiot.
Full of mockery and pity.
To become a steward of a sect, one must at least be at the cultivation level of a Middle Stage Great Sword Master. A Beginner Level Sword Master who doesn’t even have sword meridians claiming he wants to slaughter Steward Mu Kun is like an ant shouting that it wants to bite an elephant to death.
It’s simply laughable.
It’s utterly overestimating oneself.
"Chu Feng, if you come out alive, I’ll give you the chance to slaughter me! Let’s see who is better on the Life-and-Death Arena!"
"What a pity, you will probably never have that opportunity because you’re going to be burned alive in the Fiery Flame Cave, turning into a puddle of Flame Magma soon."
As he spoke, Steward Mu Kun pressed the mechanical device to the limit, and the doors of the Mechanical Gate at the exit were completely shut.
He believed that Chu Feng would surely die inside.
Chu Feng forced himself to calm down; with the exit sealed, he had no way to escape. He could only survive by handling the situation in the Fiery Flame Cave properly.
If he couldn’t handle it well, he believed that covetous and petty Steward Mu Kun would do as he said and would certainly send Chu Yun over, and by then, Chu Yun would be burned alive as well.
This was something Chu Feng absolutely did not want to see.
He no longer had a choice.
As he walked deeper into the cave, Chu Feng discovered that the cave walls were marked with epitaphs left by predecessors who had been assigned the same task as him. This happened every hundred years.
Each one of them, knowing they would surely die, left their last words.
Some people’s epitaphs asked the sect to take care of their families, some cursed the sect for its heartlessness, while others protested their grievances.
Basically, those who were sent to carry out this task had committed serious crimes.
Or even betrayed the sect, needing execution before being sent to this sure-to-die mission.
Since they were going to die anyway, dying for the sect could earn a sizeable compensation for their families. At the same time, it could atone for their crimes, turning them into innocent people. Thus, many people were still willing to undertake this task.
Chu Feng carefully read through the epitaphs as he went along and found that at least more than a hundred people had left last words.
There must be others who did not leave any words behind.
This also indicated that the Ten Thousand Sword Sect had existed for over ten thousand years.
"Eh, this person is rather interesting. The epitaph left behind does not curse the sect or the like, but informs later generations of the discoveries made in the Fiery Flame Cave and some analysis and conjecture about the specific cause of the volcanic eruptions on Fiery Flame Peak."
Chu Feng found the epitaph of one person particularly interesting.
He stopped to read it in detail.
"Before my imminent death, I witnessed a Crimson Dragon bursting out from the Flame Magma, churning and causing turmoil... I estimate the centennial eruption of the Flame Magma well is related to this Crimson Dragon. If future visitors can find a way to subdue this Crimson Dragon, perhaps they need not die! A convict of the Ten Thousand Sword Sect, Dong Feizi offers this!"
Chu Feng, being the reincarnation of Alchemy Venerate, had seen much of the world and did not believe there would be any actual Crimson Dragon here.
If there were indeed a real Fire Dragon, that would be disastrous; probably the entire Ten Thousand Sword Sect, even the whole Dan State, would have turned into a sea of fire and everything would have been incinerated.
"So it seems, the centennial volcanic eruption of Crimson Flame Peak must be connected with that ’Crimson Dragon.’ I don’t have to rush to activate the Mechanical Door to drain the Flame Magma within the peak."
Hence, Chu Feng no longer wasted time and quickly continued to move forward.
Soon, he reached the mouth of the volcano ahead.
Balls of boiling flame magma occasionally spurted out, and upon hitting the ground, they would immediately emit plumes of white smoke.
If those were to land on a person, they would ignite instantly.
Gazing down, Chu Feng felt an unparalleled shock. The scene was both beautiful and terrifying.
The spot he stood upon was like a cliff’s edge, with an abyss in front. Only now, the abyss was filled with the boiling flame magma, surging upwards, about to overflow from the brink.
According to the manual, this situation had reached an extremely critical point.
The volcano was about to erupt soon.
That old bastard Mu Kun must have been aware of the situation inside. He’d deliberately assigned this task to Chu Feng, intending for him to die there.
"Hmm, the Fire Spiritual Power here is incredibly dense! Once I have the sword meridians in the future and come here to cultivate, my cultivation will advance at a tremendous pace!"
While Chu Feng was in awe, he also closed his eyes and deeply sensed everything within the flame magma.
His time was running out; he had to find that ’Crimson Dragon’.
Despite being certain that the Crimson Dragon wasn’t a real Fire Dragon, Chu Feng was still unclear about what it specifically was. He had to see it with his own eyes to know for sure.
Possessing the Nine Yang Strange Fire, Chu Feng had a sense of fire that was a thousand, or even ten thousand times sharper than that of ordinary people.
He could clearly feel where the temperature was higher and where the Fire Spiritual Power was denser within the flame magma below.
"Wow, it seems that the Crimson Dragon is hiding right over there!"
After careful sensing, Chu Feng finally located the position where the ’Crimson Dragon’ lay. It was nestled unmoving deep within the flame magma.
In that area, the Fire Spiritual Power was exceptionally dense, and the temperature was several times higher than the surrounding areas.
Keep in mind, this is flame magma, with temperatures surpassing a thousand degrees.
To be several times hotter than the flame magma, that Crimson Dragon was definitely not an ordinary entity.
"I wonder why it is lying dormant? All I can do right now is to wait patiently!"
After understanding the situation, Chu Feng started to examine the entire Fiery Flame Cave.
He saw that in a conspicuous place, there were mechanical buttons for controlling the floodgates.
Without a doubt, pressing those mechanical buttons would trigger the eruption of the flame magma. It would then be completely unleashed, and funneled into a pre-dug channel.
The place where Chu Feng was standing would also become a sea of fire.
It might even be filled with the gushing flame magma, and only after discharging a portion of it would it flow back into the abyss.
The Sect was indeed cruel, sacrificing a living Sect disciple every hundred years.
The wait was unbearably long, and within the cave, it was extremely hot. Even with the Abnormal Fire within him, Chu Feng found it difficult to withstand.
In his boredom, he took out a page of the Medicine King Scripture to study.
In fact, he had read it many times before.
It recorded how to consume Abnormal Fire. The techniques passed down by the Medicine King were indeed eye-opening for Chu Feng. The Hong Family generously offered him this page of the Medicine King Scripture because nobody in their household possessed Abnormal Fire.
It was useless to them otherwise.
Suddenly, the scalding magma within the abyss began to roll violently, scaring Chu Feng into hastily retreating.
At the same time, he felt the Nine Yang Strange Fire within his body becoming more active than ever before, yet it seemed to hold some fear as well.